Many public telephone booth and pedestal mounting arrangements are purchased and installed by building contractors and property owners rather than by telephone companies, and the proceeds from operation of such telephones are retained by the property owners. As a result, contractors and property owners purchase public or coin telephone mounting arrangements from manufacturers thereof and have an installation mechanic install the telephone mounting arrangement at a desired location. Afterwards, a telephone company mechanic installs the telephone to the mounting arrangement.
Because there is a variety of different applications for public or coin telephones, each requiring a separate type of mounting arrangement to accommodate varying telephone height requirements, adjustable telephone height mounting pedestals have been developed. For example, there are telephone applications for conventional pedestrian use, for drive-up use, either in a curbside mounting or directly installed on the pavement of a parking lot, and for handicap access use. Adjustable telephone pedestals allow for the manufacture of a single telephone arrangement adaptable for installation in all of these applications with the telephone mounted to the pedestal at a selected height above the ground. However, these adjustable telephone pedestals have been designed in a manner that makes installation of the telephone at an accurate height often difficult and time consuming.
Typical of such an adjustable height mounting pedestal for public and coin telephones is U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,103 to Holland. This adjustable height mounting pedestal employs a backboard mounting enclosure mounted at a selected height along a vertical wall of an upright pedestal to secure the telephone to the upright pedestal. A pair of adjustable height U-shaped channels, each containing threaded studs welded onto the channel, are utilized by a single installer to attach the backboard mounting enclosure to the pedestal. The installation of the Holland pedestal can be accomplished be a single installer.
Another type of adjustable telephone pedestal, known in the telephone mounting industry as a "Universal Adjustable Pedestal," manufactured by Nix & Miller Co., Buford, Ga., U.S.A. and by Acoustics Development Corporation, St. Joseph's, Mo., U.S.A., includes an elongate upper pedestal assembly, which supports and encloses a public or coin telephone and which is telescopically mounted to a relatively short bottom pedestal assembly. The upper pedestal assembly can be adjustably affixed at different heights along the bottom pedestal assembly, allowing for installation of the telephone at a selected height, by use of mounting bolts located along the exterior side walls of the pedestal. Because the upper pedestal assembly is much greater in length than the bottom pedestal assembly, and because the mounting bolts are exposed, this type of telephone mounting arrangement can be vandalized easily. The longer length of the upper pedestal assembly, as compared to the length of the bottom pedestal assembly, in combination with the weight of the telephone mounted to the upper pedestal, limits the strength of the attachment of the upper pedestal assembly to the lower pedestal assembly by subjecting the exposed mounting bolts to stress and shear forces. In addition, the exposure of the mounting bolts to the public subjects the bolts to potential tampering and possible removal. Thus, a vandal can loosen or eventually separate the upper pedestal assembly from the bottom pedestal assembly by loosening the mounting bolts and applying sufficient lateral force to the upper pedestal assembly so as to move the upper pedestal back and forth in a rocking fashion. This movement of the upper pedestal places extreme stress and shear forces on the loosened mounting bolts and can eventually loosen or break the mounting bolts.
During installation of the prior art universal adjustable pedestal, a single installer must support the upper pedestal assembly with one hand while stretching toward the bottom of the pedestal to insert simultaneously the mounting bolts into the aligned openings on the upper pedestal assembly and the bottom pedestal assembly. This can be an awkward, and sometimes difficult task. Thus, installation of these prior art adjustable height pedestals can be time consuming.
Additionally, it is known that certain state regulatory agencies require a specified mounting height or mounting height range for a public or coin telephone that does not exceed 54 inches for a standard handicap access height. Specifically, such governmental regulations typically specify that the center height for the coin slot of the telephone, the highest user interactive part of the telephone, cannot exceed this 54 inch limit, to provide for access to the telephone by the general public as well as by individuals in wheelchairs. The height for the coin slot in normal drive up applications is approximately 48 inches, and curbside drive up height is approximately 46 inches. Furthermore, many state regulations require that these coin slot heights be measured at a point thirty six inches in front of the coin slot.
However, prior art adjustable height pedestals have not provided an installer with an easy to use and accurate built-in mechanism for the determination of the center height of the coin slot at a point thirty six inches in front of the coin slot prior to the mounting of the telephone to the pedestal. Thus, it is difficult for an installer to determine accurately the center height of the coin slot during installation of prior art adjustable height pedestals because the telephone is typically mounted to the pedestal by the telephone company installer on a later date after the installation of the pedestal.
In particular, the installation of prior art adjustable height pedestals requires the installer to install the pedestal at the required coin slot center height without a reference point for the position of the coin slot by either visually gauging the approximate center height of the coin slot during the installation of the pedestal or by utilizing an independent measuring device to measure the approximate center height for the coin slot during the pedestal installation. In either case, the installer might be required to return to the pedestal installation site, after the telephone has been mounted to the installed pedestal, and adjust the pedestal height to satisfy the state regulatory requirement of a specific coin slot center height for standard handicap access of the mounted telephone.
Furthermore, prior art adjustable height pedestals, when installed on an inclined surface, create a gap between the mounting base of the telephone pedestal and the inclined surface upon which the pedestal is mounted. A user of the telephone can get his foot caught within this gap and damage his shoe or possibly injure his foot. Also, many telephone pedestals are leveled on a mounting surface by use of leveling bolts that bear down against a leveling plate to prevent the bolts from digging into the mounting surface. However, the leveling plates provided in prior art pedestals typically have to be installed at the same time the base of the pedestal is secured to the mounting surface. This requires alignment of the mounting bolts and the mounting holes in both the leveling plates and the base of the pedestal, for insertion of the mounting bolts through the pedestal base and into the mounting surface, a task that can be tedious and sometimes difficult.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved adjustable height mounting system for public or coin telephones that is easily installed at a mounting site by a single installer. In addition, there is a need for an improved adjustable height pedestal that provides an accurate height determination mechanism for allowing the installer to determine accurately the center height of the coin slot of the telephone before the mounting of the telephone to the adjustable height pedestal. Furthermore, there is a need for an adjustable height pedestal that is more secure from vandalism and theft than prior art telephone mounting arrangements, yet which is flexible and versatile to accommodate a variety of mounting arrangements. Also, there is a need for such an adjustable height pedestal that securely attaches an upper pedestal telephone mounting portion to a lower, base pedestal wherein the mounting bolts are protected and not subject to excess stress and shear forces. Furthermore, there is a need for an improved adjustable height pedestal that protects the feet of a user of a telephone mounted to the pedestal from becoming caught between the pedestal base and the mounting surface, and that allows for easy installation of leveling plates during the leveling process of the pedestal base.